The Lost Earth (Lost Starship Series Book 7)

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I want a glance at the Brigadier’s personal files,” Maddox said.

  “May I offer a conjecture regarding such action?”

  Maddox hesitated a second. “Go ahead,” he said reluctantly.

  “Breaking into her personal files will anger the Iron Lady,” Galyan said. “I have no doubt we can achieve the feat—”

  “Yes!” Maddox said, deciding. “Thank you, Galyan. We are going to do this the old-fashioned way.”

  “We are going down to study the scene of the crime in detail?” Galyan asked hopefully.

  “No,” Maddox said, as he strode for the exit. “We’re going to use Victory’s sensors and computers to locate the needle in the haystack.”

  -5-

  It took far longer for the bridge crew to find Riker than Maddox had expected. During the last hour, he had begun to believe that Star Watch Intelligence had whisked the sergeant somewhere off planet.

  As Maddox silently played with that conclusion, Galyan announced, “I have discovered Sergeant Riker’s whereabouts.”

  Lieutenant Valerie Noonan turned in her seat. “Don’t keep us guessing, Galyan. Where is he?”

  “Do I have your permission to speak?” Galyan asked Maddox.

  “Of course,” the captain said.

  “The sergeant is in a special ward of a heavily fortified asylum for the criminally insane,” Galyan said.

  “What?” Valerie cried.

  “The facility has a pristine name,” Galyan said. “I am simply speaking factually. Riker is in a facility outside the city of Athens, Greece. There is a Space Marine barracks nearby. No doubt, they could deploy to the facility in minutes, if needed.”

  “Why is Riker there?” Maddox asked.

  “I have not yet entered the facility’s computers,” Galyan said. “My sensors located his body, while I assessed the facility’s purpose. Would you like me to hack into their computer system?”

  “At once,” Maddox said.

  “Please give me a moment,” Galyan said. His eyelids fluttered for a long moment before abruptly opening with a look of shock.

  “What happened?” Valerie asked.

  “This is incredible,” Galyan said. “The system is heavily encrypted. I made it halfway through the core when fail-safes crashed into place. I believe I can still invade the system, but it will be days, maybe even a week before I can give you the results.”

  “How is that possible?” Valerie asked. “You once invaded a Builder—”

  “I gave a detailed report on the Builder system invasion,” Galyan said, interrupting. “It appears Star Watch personnel have invented a secure site against my unique abilities.”

  “The asylum must be a maximum-security site,” Maddox said softly. “Clearly, Major Stokes knows about it and knows about Riker’s incarceration.”

  “As you surmised, sir,” Galyan said, “the major knowingly lied to you.”

  Maddox stroked his chin, thinking. What had happened in Kauai that had put Riker in such an institution under heavy guard and total secrecy? What’s more, the Brigadier and the Lord High Admiral were in Geneva, out of contact with anyone. Were the two events related?

  “I doubt Riker is insane,” Valerie said.

  “What?” Maddox asked, looking up. “Don’t be absurd. Riker is as level-headed as they come.” Maddox shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something more, and slowly closed his mouth instead.

  “Are we going to leave him there?” Valerie asked.

  “I am surprised at you, Lieutenant,” Galyan chided.

  “What do you mean?” Valerie asked.

  “You are a rules stickler,” the AI said. “You love to follow the chain of command and procedure. It is unlike you to suggest we break the sergeant out of a probably lawful—”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said, interrupting.

  “Sir?” the AI asked.

  “Enough,” Maddox said.

  Galyan turned to Valerie. Perhaps he noticed her crimson features. “Have I embarrassed you, Lieutenant?”

  “No,” Valerie said, as she turned back to her station.

  “Was that an accurate statement on your part?” Galyan asked her.

  Valerie spun back around. “We can’t just leave Riker in the lurch. Somebody must have framed him. I know I follow the rules. They’re for our protection. But I can learn, too, you know. The captain stands by his crew. One way or another, we have to get Riker out of there.”

  “Against the orders of Star Watch?” Galyan asked.

  “Who ordered us to leave Riker in there?” Valerie asked.

  “No one directly told us that,” the AI said. “The implication, however—”

  Maddox pointed at Galyan. “Right,” he said. “The implication is that someone has nabbed Sergeant Riker under Star Watch’s nose. Major Stokes doesn’t even know about it.”

  “But we have determined that Stokes is lying,” Galyan said.

  “That’s right,” Maddox said. “Officially, we’re going to believe his lie.”

  Galyan’s eyelids fluttered. Soon, a smile crept upon his Adok features. “That is quite underhanded, sir. I like it.”

  “Count me in,” Valerie said.

  “Yes…” Maddox said, as he stroked his chin once more. “Galyan, get me a schematic of the asylum and the exact location of Sergeant Riker.”

  “I have a schematic on file,” Galyan said.

  A holoimage of the asylum appeared before the captain. As Maddox studied it, a light began to blink on Valerie’s comm board.

  The lieutenant listened to it and then turned around swiftly. “Sir,” she told Maddox. “You’ve just been summoned to an emergency briefing in Geneva at Star Watch Headquarters.”

  “Regarding…?” he asked.

  “The Iron Lady did not elaborate. But she does want you down at Geneva in an hour. The meeting will start in two.”

  “What should we do about Sergeant Riker in the meantime?” Galyan asked.

  Maddox nodded slowly, as if to himself. “We’ll shelve the rescue attempt for now,” he said. “But I want both of you ready for an immediate strike.”

  “Will you ask the Brigadier about Riker?” Galyan asked.

  “I’m going to play this by ear,” Maddox said. He faced Valerie. “Call Keith. Tell him to get a flitter ready. I’m going down.”

  -6-

  Maddox sat in a stark conference chamber in a deep underground chamber beneath Star Watch Headquarters.

  Brigadier Mary O’Hara sat beside him at a round table that could have comfortably held fifteen or sixteen individuals. The room had steel walls and two heavy doors. Marine guards in battlesuits stood outside the one Maddox had come in.

  Mary O’Hara was an older lady with gray hair and matronly features. She’d run Star Watch Intelligence for as long as Maddox had been around.

  In many ways, the Iron Lady treated him as the son she’d never had. She was a good woman, and had cried at his wedding. He felt embarrassed thinking about it.

  Fortunately, he didn’t have to. What the Iron Lady had just shown him was deeply sobering.

  The holoimage recording of the invading Swarm Fleet heading for the Tau Ceti System at sub-light speed still hovered over the table. According to the specs, the fleet was building up velocity at a steady rate.

  Maddox had recognized the saucer-shaped ships. He’d seen them at the Builder Dyson Sphere. He recognized others that he’d seen at the Golden Nexus System where the Swarm fought the Chitins. Since the Swarm had reached Human Space, they must have defeated the smaller bugs there.

  “How much time do we have left?” Maddox asked.

  O’Hara shook her head. “Admiral Fletcher is racing home with the Grand Fleet. Luckily, they started home a month ago. Thanks to Professor Ludendorff, we’ve already come to a tentative agreement with the New Men. Ludendorff did the right thing giving them Strand. I wouldn’t have agreed to that at the time…”

  O’Hara shrugged.

  “Will the Grand F
leet arrive in time to face the Swarm in the Tau Ceti System?” Maddox asked.

  “Oh, no,” O’Hara said. “Fletcher will make it home, but he won’t go there. Tau Ceti is doomed. We can’t possibly gather enough ships in time to face the Swarm there. We’re going to have to pick the perfect engagement to give us the best odds we can get. We’ll have to gather every ship we can. We’ll have to begin a crash building program…”

  She shook her head.

  “Even then…” she added, “I’ll doubt that will be enough to defeat such a vast fleet.”

  Maddox drummed his fingers on the table. “You’re going to need the New Men’s help.”

  “Bringing them here is a grave risk in and of itself.”

  “It’s also preferable to extinction.”

  The Brigadier stared at Maddox. “In truth, we’re not sure how to broach the topic with them. Why would the New Men help save us?”

  “For the best of reasons,” Maddox said. “After us, the Swarm will go after them. It’s in the New Men’s self-interest to combine our forces while we’re able.”

  “Our best strategists and tacticians have made the calculations,” she said. “Even with the New Men’s help, we’re doomed.”

  “The Spacers…” Maddox said.

  O’Hara laughed bleakly. “Tell me where the Spacers are hiding.”

  “I have no idea.”

  “No one does.”

  “We have to find them,” Maddox said.

  “Could you find them?”

  Maddox blinked at her. “Yes,” he said finally.

  “How would you start?”

  “By talking to Shu 15,” he said.

  The Brigadier’s features hardened. “You’ve just gotten married, Captain. I do not believe you trying to persuade Shu would be a good idea. Meta wouldn’t like it.”

  “Maybe not,” Maddox admitted, “but that’s also beside the point given possible human extinction.”

  “Even if Shu gave you a lead,” O’Hara said, “I doubt you could find the Spacers in time. Don’t you realize that it’s possible the Spacers would side with the Swarm?”

  “For what possible reason would they do such an insane thing?” Maddox demanded.

  “The Spacers have strange beliefs. They might believe the Swarm are the superior species. They may even have already fled far away to start over.”

  “Maybe,” Maddox said. “Whatever the case, we can’t stop trying just because the enemy has a few more ships than we do.”

  “No…” O’Hara said softly, staring at a wall.

  Maddox could read the signs easily enough. Mary O’Hara had a different idea. Neither she nor the Lord High Admiral had any plans on giving up. If the Spacers couldn’t shift the odds in humanity’s favor, what could?

  The Iron Lady inhaled sharply through her nostrils. She brought her focus back to him. Against all past protocol, she reached out, touching his face. Her features softened, and she smiled at him very sadly.

  Maddox could not say what he felt. He’d never known his mother. She’d died soon after his birth, after she’d escaped from a New Man breeding facility. The Iron Lady had treated him like the…

  “Ma’am?” he asked.

  O’Hara let her hand linger against his cheek just a little longer. Finally, she removed it.

  “I’m glad you married Meta,” the Brigadier said. “That was a wonderful idea. Meta is a fine woman.”

  Maddox nodded. The spot on his cheek still felt warm. He…missed the Brigadier’s touch. A second later, he squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. He refused to allow himself any weakness.

  The Brigadier’s smile became even sadder. “It’s been so very difficult for you. I’m sorry.”

  “No,” he said.

  O’Hara looked away. Her shoulders actually shook. Was she crying?

  Maddox wanted to put a hand on her shoulder, to console her. He could not. It wasn’t his way. He was an island. Yes, he had Meta. He had his crew. Even so—

  The Brigadier faced him as she wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry for that little display,” she whispered.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “There may be a way to save Earth.”

  “Yes?”

  “It will mean using Victory again. This will possibly be your hardest mission yet, the most dangerous. I don’t want to ask you to do it…”

  “If it will give us a chance against the Swarm, I’m for it,” Maddox said. He glanced at the holoimage stellar map. The number of Swarm warships out there…

  O’Hara stood. She seemed listless. What was wrong with her?

  Maddox stood as well. “Do you have something to show me?”

  O’Hara nodded.

  “Is it Sergeant Riker?” he guessed.

  Her eyes widened before narrowing in suspicion. “What do you know?” she asked.

  “That the sergeant is being held near Athens in an insane asylum.”

  “You used your starship against us?” she accused.

  “How can you say that? I used Victory to locate Riker. Stokes told me Star Watch had no idea concerning his whereabouts.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” she said.

  Maddox stopped talking.

  “You used your starship against Star Watch.”

  Maddox said nothing. He would not lie about it. That didn’t mean he had to agree with her.

  “What do you know about Riker?” she asked.

  “Not much,” Maddox admitted. “I don’t believe he’s insane, though.”

  “No…” O’Hara said softly. “It’s much worse than that.”

  Maddox frowned.

  “Come,” O’Hara said. “It’s best if you see and hear it if for yourself.”

  -7-

  Maddox exited the underground railcar, following the Iron Lady into a corridor. They’d used the small vehicle, moving underground on a special rail to a new location sixty kilometers from headquarters.

  “We can’t be in Athens,” Maddox said.

  “We transferred Riker while you came down,” she said.

  Maddox said nothing to that.

  They passed underground checkpoints and moved through heavy hatches. More battlesuited marines lined the way. Finally, they entered an area with nurses and doctors. Muffled screams sounded behind some of the doors.

  They entered a long sterile hall, passed another checkpoint and finally arrived at a two-way mirror. On the other side, Sergeant Riker sat in a padded room wearing a straightjacket. Poor Riker’s face was twisted with fear. He did not look about or mumble to himself. Instead, he sat like a man awaiting a terror that would consume him.

  “What happened?” Maddox demanded. He yearned to kill whoever had done this to Riker.

  O’Hara glanced at the captain. “We have deactivated his bionic arm. Otherwise, he could tear off the straightjacket.”

  “Take it off him,” Maddox demanded.

  “He feels more comfortable with it on.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “It is hard to understand, I agree,” O’Hara murmured.

  “Are you saying he’s tried to kill himself?” Maddox asked.

  “No…but he’s certainly thinking about it.”

  “Let me talk to him.”

  O’Hara sighed. “That’s what he fears most.”

  Maddox stared at her. “Why?”

  “It has to do with a null region in space.”

  “What does that even mean?” Maddox asked.

  “The region holds two Destroyers of the Nameless Ones,” O’Hara said, as she watched Maddox closely.

  The captain’s face drained of color. In a quick jerk, he stared at Riker again.

  “So, it’s true…” O’Hara whispered. “You can actually reach two Destroyers? He wasn’t lying about that?”

  The realization of her words penetrated Maddox’s thoughts. “I see,” he said. “You want me to retrieve the Destroyers.”

  “We’re considering it.”

  “Who i
s we?”

  “The Lord High Admiral and I, among a few others in charge of the Commonwealth’s defenses.”

  “Why wouldn’t we attempt this?” Maddox asked.

  O’Hara studied his face. She seemed unsure. She seemed to doubt him. “Do you know what happened to your sergeant?”

  “I haven’t a clue.”

  “He won’t tell us how it happened. He won’t say anything knowingly. But we have monitors in his room. He talks in his sleep. That’s how we’ve come to learn as much as we have.”

  “Let me talk to him.”

  “He dreads that,” O’Hara said. “He’s pleaded with us to keep you away from him.”

  “Why?”

  “Did you find specks of blood in the rug of Room 142?” O’Hara asked.

  “You know I did.”

  “And a burn mark?”

  Maddox nodded.

  “We found the sergeant’s bionic hand on the rug. The other one couldn’t have done it, at least, not according to the fingerprints.”

  “What are you talking about?” Maddox asked.

  “Riker used a blaster to burn off his bionic hand,” O’Hara said.

  Maddox began shaking his head. “That’s it. I demand you let me speak to him. I have to know what’s going on.”

  “What if speaking to him means your damnation?”

  Maddox frowned. What kind of question was that?

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I want to know if we can save humanity. I don’t want to sacrifice you, Riker and possibly Meta to do it.”

  “I’m tired of these hints. Are you going to let me speak to him or not?”

  “Don’t you have any sense of self-survival?” O’Hara asked. “Can’t you realize there are wicked dangers in the universe best left alone? Sometimes, those evils can consume you.”

  “I believe in fighting as hard as I can, Ma’am.”

  “The boastfulness of —”

  His eyes grew haunted.

  “—youth,” O’Hara finished.

  The haunted look vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.

  The Iron Lady nodded. “I suppose I knew it would come to this. Why else did I bring you here? I expected nothing less from you, of course.”